Employer Health Tax Registration Reminder – Deadline May 15

The Employer Health Tax is an annual tax on an employer’s B.C. payroll paid to employees and former employees in a calendar year beginning on January 1, 2019.   All taxable employers must register for the tax, with most registrations due by May 15, 2019.  (The BBOT strongly opposes the Employer Health Tax.  Read about our advocacy efforts here.)

All employers with BC payrolls above the exemption amount in a calendar year must register for the Employer Health Tax. The exemption amount is $500,000 for businesses and $1,500,000 per calendar year for registered charitable or non-profit employers.  Click here to go to the government Employer Health Tax Registration Site. 

If, after using the EHT calculator, your tax owning is more than $2,925 (a payroll of $600,000 or more), you must pay in installments and should register by May 15, 2019.  If your tax is less than $2,925 you must register before December 31, 2019 and file and pay your EHT return by March 31, 2020.

Employers who are taxable will first need to register for an employer health tax account using eTaxBC. The registration process is said to take approximately 10 to 20 minutes.

Once your registration is processed, you will receive an employer health tax account number. An employer health tax account number is 11-characters long and will be in the following format:  EHT-1234-5678. Once you have registered for an employer health tax account you can enrol for access to eTaxBC, or if you already have an eTaxBC account, you can logon to add access to your employer health tax account.

To register, all applicants will require the follow information:
• Your federal business number (BN)
• A mailing address and business location address (if different)
• The date your permanent establishment started in B.C. (if later than December 31, 2017)
• Your incorporation number and date, if your business is incorporated

Some applicants will require additional documentation:
• If you are a charity, your Registered Charity Number
• If you are incorporated outside of B.C., a  copy of your incorporation documents
• If you are a partnership, a copy of your partnership agreement

Information and Resources:

EHT Registration Site
Employer Health Tax Calculator
EHT Registration and Payment – Frequently Asked Questions

Watch this video tutorial for a walk-through of the registration process: